This invention relates to displays. More specifically, this invention relates to displays requiring a quick warm-up time.
Present displays used in cockpits of airplanes typically include an array of liquid crystal display (LCD) elements and a backlight for illuminating those elements. Such displays require an undesirably long period of time for warm-up during which dynamic performance of the LCD is unacceptable so that displays are smeared or not properly updated. Furthermore, the low brightness of the backlight during the warm-up period can make viewing difficult. The warm-up time of displays used in the cockpits of airplanes, for example, can be as long as thirty minutes for some displays.
It is, therefore, desirable to decrease the warm-up time of such displays. One approach to decreasing the warm-up time is to utilize extra heater elements in the display. These heater elements are turned on during the warm-up period to generate extra heat and then are turned off once the normal operational temperature of the display is reached, thereby decreasing warm-up time. A 40 or 50 watt heater element, for example, can reduce the warm-up time to as little as ten minutes in some displays.
The addition of such elements, however, create a potentially hazardous situation. For example, if the heater element were to fail such that the extra heat were continually generated, the electronics in the display could fail. An even worse scenario would result if the components or wiring in the display burned and generated smoke. Such a condition in a cockpit would endanger the airplane and its contents.